Chapter 7
The Somerville butler showed Titus to a private sitting room. Still puzzled over the message he had received from Robin, he paced the room, and didn’t have to wait long. Robin entered followed by a footman with a bottle of good Strathnaver Scots whisky and two glasses.
Robin gestured for him to sit and handed him a glass without asking if he wanted one. “Drink up. You may need it.”
Titus, eyes studying Robin in search of sense, sipped cautiously.
“Justin was injured last night.” Robin’s words were bald and frank. One of them registered harder than the rest.
“Night?”
“You will have guessed Moonlight has more than one identity,” Robin replied impatiently.
Of course, he does! “How bad is he? Is he—" Titus sputtered.
Robin waved the words away. “Well enough. He’ll recover.
“And what is this to me?” Titus demanded.
His mysterious friend appeared momentarily sheepish. “I need help.”
“With Justin?”
“God no. He’s well cared for. With another ride.”
Titus blinked, unable to parse that out for a moment. “Ride? You mean—”
“What it sounds like. Captain Moonlight doesn’t ride alone. Too easy to get caught; too hard to confuse people.” His determined gaze held Titus’s.
A sigh came from deep in Titus’s chest. “Who is the victim?”
“One of Brighton’s gambling sharps. He fleeced Tobias Hooper’s nephew out of twenty pounds.”
Titus whistled. “What was the lad doing with that kind of money?”
“It wasn’t his. His employer told him to take it to the bank. The nodcock thought he might use it as stake and make a few of his own before depositing it,” Robin said with a wry smile. “The loss might be a lesson except his master is threatening deportation. The lad was cheated.”
“Fair enough. I’m in, but you’ll have to tell me what to do.” From the gleam in Robin’s eyes that would not be a problem.
Hours later Titus shivered in the shelter of a thicket on the coldest night so far along the Brighton-London Pike waiting for Robin to identify their quarry.
He’d been dressed in black with a flowing cape.
He and Robin were meant to look identical, or as close to, so that if they fled in opposite directions, it would confuse witnesses.
Two others—Somerville grooms, unless he missed his guess—rode with them. His heart pounded in his chest.
He was almost at the end of his endurance when Robin shifted in his saddle and raised his arm.
How he knew, Titus didn’t ask. They all pulled their masks over the lower part of their faces, and Titus patted his horse’s neck, preparing himself.
In a flash they galloped onto the road, riding in circles around a cabriolet, shouting, and confusing its single horse, forcing it to stop.
Their basic goal was to sow confusion and fear and be done before the victims could think.
There were two passengers, both men. Robin pulled up on one side, loudly demanding their purses.
Titus, as instructed, kept to the other side.
He knew the pistol Robin aimed at the driver was unloaded, as was the one Titus waved at the passenger.
When the driver tried to demur, one of the grooms yanked him by his neckcloth and groped inside the hapless victim’s coat, pulling out a heavy purse.
In a flash it was over, Robin and one groom riding off one way up and over a hill; Titus and the other in the opposite direction down a lane and around a curve.
It was an hour before dawn when Titus reached the Somerville stables to find Robin still dressed as Moonlight counting their take. Robin looked up and nodded. “Well done.”
Titus stripped off his dark cape and put his own coat and hat on. “How much?”
“Twenty-three pounds sixpence, plenty to bail the young fool out,” Robin said. “Do you want a pound or two?”
“I don’t want any of it,” Titus replied, “But I know someone who could use it.”
Robin grinned.
Titus took a half crown and several pence. More would draw potentially unpleasant scrutiny to Tessa.
“I’ll be on my way. I have another stop to make tonight,” he said.
Robin waved him on. They didn’t discuss doing it again, and Titus rather hoped they would not. Captain Moonlight was riding closer and closer to discovery.
* * *
The night had turned from deep black to grey when a sound outside awoke Tessa. Wrapping a blanket around her, she stepped warily to the window facing the rear of the cottage. In the gloom she saw a shadow moving around the chicken enclosure.
A thief? We can’t afford to lose our birds.
As near as she could make out the enclosure was intact.
She clutched the blanket closer and sharpened her gaze when the figure moved around the side.
It was a man, definitely a grown man—tall and well-built who moved with the confidence of a soldier. Captain Moonlight? Again?
The mysterious figure walked toward the side of the house, close enough to make out his outline. She sucked in a breath. He resembled Titus! The tilt of his head, the graceful posture…
When he disappeared from view, she tamped down the urge to run out and confront him. She could very well be wrong and whoever was out there might be a brigand or at least a poacher. She held her breath, listening. Soon enough, she heard the sound of a horse being led away at a walk.
No poacher came by horse. But what would Titus Brannock want in her chicken house in the dark of night? Or Captain Moonlight for that matter. Another gift? She would leave it for the light of day.
She lay back on her bed. “I ought to be terrified,” she said to the empty room. Oddly, she felt safe and protected. She smiled into the night and drifted off to sleep.
It wasn’t many hours before the sound of Robby banging down the stairs woke her again. She dressed quickly and followed him to the kitchen.
“Breakfast, Love? Are you packed up for school?” she asked.
“No school, Mam. Mr. Weatherall is injured, remember?” Robby answered.
“Porridge?” she asked picking up a pot.
“Yes, and an egg please. I’ll go see what the girls have for us,” Robby chirped. He was out the door before she could stop him.
Tessa froze with indecision. If she ran out to fuss, and there was no sign of an intruder, she would frighten the boy needlessly. On the other hand, if anything odd appeared, Robby would—
The door slammed open. “Mam!” Robby stood in the doorway. Coins blinked in the sunlight on his open hand. He deposited the money on the table as carefully as if it was the treasure of the pharaohs.
A half crown, and eight pennies. A treasure indeed. Tessa stared at it her heart racing.
“Captain Moonlight was here again,” Robby enthused.
“We don’t know that,” Tessa told him cautiously.
“Davy says Moonlight knows those as are in need. We have need, don’t we?” Robby objected.
“Even if it is from Moonlight, it will be ill-gotten,” she replied, guiltily remembering the previous bounty, most of which was still in her lock box.
“Davy says he only takes from them that can afford it, ones that take too much from good folk.”
His prattling went in one ear and out the other. Tessa’s mind was processing the windfall. I can’t take charity from Titus Brannock. But if it was Moonlight…
“I can’t wait to tell Davy that Moonlight was here,” Robby exclaimed.
“Don’t you dare! I told you last time to tell no one. Please assure me you didn’t say anything.”
“I dint, Mam. Truly I dint. But it was hard, and now it will be harder.”
“Sometimes important things are hard, Robby. We don’t need the neighbors knowing our business. Now you go fetch that egg you wanted and one for me too,” Tessa said.
When the boy scurried off, she removed her lock box from its hiding place and put the coins in before locking and returning it.
She turned back to fixing porridge, her mind a confused maelstrom. Only one thing was certain. She would have words with Titus Brannock. At the ball, if not before.